GNC Holdings (GNC): Heavy Pre-Market Activity

Editor's Note: Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of TheStreet, Inc. or any of its contributors including Jim Cramer or Stephanie Link.

Trade-Ideas LLC identified GNC Holdings ( GNC) as a pre-market mover with heavy volume candidate. In addition to specific proprietary factors, Trade-Ideas identified GNC Holdings as such a stock due to the following factors:

GNC has an average dollar-volume (as measured by average daily share volume multiplied by share price) of $56.6 million.

GNC traded 191,099 shares today in the pre-market hours as of 8:49 AM, representing 13.1% of its average daily volume.

GNC Holdings, Inc. operates as a specialty retailer of health and wellness products. It operates through three segments: Retail, Franchise, and Manufacturing/Wholesale. The stock currently has a dividend yield of 1.4%. GNC has a PE ratio of 16.4. Currently there are 9 analysts that rate GNC Holdings a buy, 1 analyst rates it a sell, and none rate it a hold.

The average volume for GNC Holdings has been 1.9 million shares per day over the past 30 days. GNC has a market cap of $4.1 billion and is part of the services sector and retail industry. The stock has a beta of 1.23 and a short float of 3.1% with 1.93 days to cover. Shares are down 24.6% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Monday.

TheStreet Quant Ratings rates GNC Holdings as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, notable return on equity, growth in earnings per share, increase in net income and expanding profit margins. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 5.9%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 8.6%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.

Current return on equity exceeded its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of strength within the company. When compared to other companies in the Specialty Retail industry and the overall market, GNC HOLDINGS INC's return on equity exceeds that of the industry average and significantly exceeds that of the S&P 500.

GNC HOLDINGS INC's earnings per share improvement from the most recent quarter was slightly positive. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, GNC HOLDINGS INC increased its bottom line by earning $2.72 versus $2.29 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($3.23 versus $2.72).

The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the Specialty Retail industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income increased by 0.5% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $47.44 million to $47.66 million.

39.27% is the gross profit margin for GNC HOLDINGS INC which we consider to be strong. Regardless of GNC's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, GNC's net profit margin of 7.76% compares favorably to the industry average.